


Pigments

by orphan_account



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Non-graphic character death, angst???, does this count as a character study?, im not sure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22108468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: All the colors Bede takes on throughout his life.
Relationships: Friendship - Relationship
Comments: 5
Kudos: 48





	Pigments

Bede is four years old and a blinding, brilliant gold. His smile comes easy and glows with a radiance that could guide a lost ship through the fog. 

_ "Mum! I got bit by a Skwovet!" A child in a soft green jacket clutches a hand to his chest, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. _

_ "Oh, Bede, are you okay?" His mother kneels down next to him, gently taking his hand and inspecting it. The Frosmoth on her shoulder takes flight as she does so, fluttering through an open window and into their house. "You know you shouldn't shake berry trees so much, you should always leave some for the Pokemon or they'll get  _ angry."

_ He pouts and prepares to give an indignant response, but his mother simply laughs. She puts a bandaid on the wound, wipes the tears from his eyes, and kisses him on the forehead, and Bede forgets any of the anger or fear he'd felt towards that Skwovet.  _

_ "Remember to treat the other kids and Pokemon with kindness. If you are kind to them, they will be kind to you." _

He loves his parents and they love him, so there's not a single thing in the world that he could be worried about.

.

Bede is six years old and his golden light is covered in scuff marks and scratches. The bright glow he once carried within him has dulled , all hopes of guiding ships are gone and it's barely bright enough to read by in the dark.

_ His uncle holds his arm so tightly it hurts. The sleeves of his jacket are wet with tears. Everyone crowds him, telling him his parents were beautiful people and they were gone too soon. They say they've always loved his parents. Only the first two statements are true.  _

_ Frosmoth refuses to leave the grave of her two trainers. Bede begs her to protect them, wherever they're going. He wishes he could be like Frosmoth, to stay by his parents' side forever.  _

_ He tries to use his mother's advice at the orphanage. No matter how kind he is, nobody returns it.  _

Bede stops being kind at six years old. 

.

Bede is fourteen years old and a brilliant red. A man made of bright petals and well-concealed thorns finds him, gifts him a partner, and tells him to make him proud. 

He takes pride in the red that Rose has helped him become, and swears that no matter what, he will stand by Rose, the man who taught him to be strong. 

_ "I just let you win. Your team is pathetic." He tells the female trainer, who just fixes him with a bored look. Bright red anger like a dynamax aura fills his body— she has no right, the chairman is more important than the champion.  _

_ He consoles himself by crushing the champion's brother into the mud. The loss against the girl must have been a fluke, he decides, and his battle with Hop must be the normal outcome in a battle between one endorsed by the champion and one endorsed by the chairman.  _

His dynamaxed Pokemon glow with the same red light as he does, but even then he can't defeat Gloria and make the chairman proud. 

.

Bede is fourteen and he doesn't know what color he is anymore. He’s a mess, so pained and betrayed that he can’t even see clearly. 

_ "It pains me to have to say this, but... I am truly disappointed. It’s true that I am the one who found you, back when you were all alone..." Rose says, and Bede wants to cry. “I saw talent in you. You reminded me a little bit of myself, back when I was young. That’s why I sent you to a Trainers’ school, to give you a chance at success." _

_ Bede’s face is hot with shame as Rose continues, as he’s told that he’ll be disqualified and Gloria watches off to the side. She’s laughing at him, he thinks, behind her neutral expression she’s laughing at him.  _

_ Oleana takes the wishing stars he spent so long collecting and tells him he’s a disappointment. It feels like a killing blow, right through his heart. _

Only then, sitting in an alley feeling used and humiliated does he wonder if he ever chose to be red in the first place. 

.

Bede is finally fifteen and he knows who he is. He’s ballet-slipper pink, the color of his Sylveon, of cotton candy. 

After he was cast out by the league, Opal took him in. She kept no secrets or hidden thorns like Rose did, she was simply  kind , with no ulterior motives other than passing the mantle of her gym to a worthy trainer. She diluted his bright red anger into something softer.

Parts of the red still remain, that is the nature of pink. Bede is still stubborn, and his passion for Pokemon training and the things he loves stays the same, but the pure anger directed at the world and anyone stronger than him is gone.

Bede, the truest, pinkest version of himself, is glad that Rose is in jail and far away from him. This Bede smiles when he shakes hands after a loss. This Bede seeks out Hop and Bea and Allister and apologizes for the things he did while working for Rose.

Bede stopped being kind at six years old, and at fifteen he finally picks the habit back up.

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! this is a very different thing than the stuff i’ve written before, and it’s a bit of a mess;; i have no clue how well i wrote bede here, this was just a little idea that spiralled out of control


End file.
